A lot of people's definition of cooperating, in this case, is Brady handing over his private phone. He does not have to do that. I think Favre getting fined for not handing over his phone was bullshit as well, but even if you want to use that as your precedent, that was fine, not a suspension. One might argue that his suspension was entirely for the deflating, (which again, is circumstantial), but I think the NFL's report that other day implied otherwise. A lot of gray area in this case, and once it's over, whatever outcomes will become precedent for future cases. Which is why the NFLPA is so involved, and this whole mess is slippery slope in league-player discipline.

If there's no point in handing over phone if they could curate texts, as they obviously wouldn't show any guilt. When talking about this issue, you have to talk about it from a plethora of perspectives because of the large amount of misinformation.

And again, regardless of the investigation, the players do not have to hand over private phones. So, essentially, Brady is being punished for not cooperating, even though he is allowed to not cooperate. Again, regardless of guilt, setting a precedent where you can punished for not cooperating, even if it is your right not to, sets an awful precedent for the players.

And that leads to the bigger issue of how fair is punishing a player for not providing your private phone to investigators, regardless of the investigation. Let's say they start investigating PED use across the league. "Just give us your phone, if you aren't using PEDs, there should be no problem." Also, Favre was fined for not giving his phone. I, and obviously Brady and his team, believe that him not giving his phone helped increase/was the cause of the suspension, which is much more severe than the precedent set by Favre. Plus, it's not like the messages on the phone are any more or less available then when (and there seem to be conflicting stories about when) Brady and his team said they weren't going to give them the phone. I know Wells said they would let Brady and his team curate the texts, but why would they show any texts that show guilt? They also already have texts between Brady and the phones of the personnel they did take.

Regardless of guilt, the bigger deal now is about arbitrary punishments set by NFL, and there being no checks and balances to the leagues power. This was a massive issue with the Bounty-gate and Ray Rice case too, but harder to defend because then the NFLPA would be seen as defending a wife beater. I can't see how other teams and players would be happy about the league docking draft picks and handing out 4 game suspension over something that is very circumstantial.

This is the nature of being successful folks, and why the NFL has so much parity. If you draft well, you eventually won't be able to pay all the good players you drafted. Don't start hating your players because they want more. The NFL made 8 BILLION last year. Maybe you should be mad at the NFL, team owners, for not increasing the salary cap enough.

"I also disagree with yesterdays narrative surrounding my cellphone. I replaced my broken Samsung phone with a new iPhone 6 AFTER my attorneys made it clear to the NFL that my actual phone device would not be subjected to investigation under ANY circumstances. As a member of a union, I was under no obligation to set a new precedent going forward, nor was I made aware at any time during Mr. Wells investigation, that failing to subject my cell phone to investigation would result in ANY discipline." - Brady

He got rid of the cell phone after he already said they wouldn't hand it over, so destroying it doesn't hide anything. If it goes to court, depending on the nature of the legal battle, the text messages will still be accessible. Meaning, by going to court, he's risking being exposed. I don't think he's dumb enough to risk his reputation on that level, but some might. Again, this is all about what you want to believe. The NFL is spinning the narrative one way, and Brady/Patriots are attempting to spin it theirs.

The "destroyed" part is still sensationalized by the NFL, framing it as "destroyed" drives a narrative getting a new phone does not. I'm fine with people believing the NFL over Brady, but please do not take whatever they say as pure fact. No one believed Goodell when the Ray Rice video got "lost in the mail room", but now what he says 100% fact? Believe what you want, but this is not black and white.

That made 0 sense. I think what you're saying is that, they just suck so that's why deflated balls didn't give them a statistical fumble advantage? The point of this study was to make headlines like "Look, the Patriots have been deflating balls since 2007!" which would be sensational and inaccurate if the statistics in the study were inaccurate.

That's what I'm saying, if he goes to court, he won't have a choice and is opting to go court. Not smart if he's going to get exposed.

I'm not for shaky excuses, and I believe the Patriots are probably guilty. I believe the Patriots should get punished, not Tom Brady. Especially on the basis of not cooperating. Sets an awful precedent.

Man you're stupid. He wasn't giving them the phone in the first place, so there was no need to destroy it. And when they go to court, the texts will still be available, depending on the nature of the argument.

The whole text thing is fucking stupid. Wells said they would allow Brady and co. to selectively show text messages anyways. If they did that, the narrative would be "well they purposely hid the incriminating text messages"